What is Altcoin?

When anyone talks about cryptocurrency, the first thing that comes to mind is Bitcoin. It is true that Bitcoin has been the trailblazer for crypto with the introduction of its peer-to-peer electronic cash system. The fact is that the number of cryptocurrencies in the world is more than 1600 and is ever-increasing.

This article will take you through ten of the most significant cryptocurrencies, other than Bitcoin, and each of their unique specialties.

What is Altcoin?

The cryptocurrencies that came after Bitcoin and are modeled on it are collectively called altcoin. Most of these are just different versions of Bitcoin with some changes made to them. There are also other cryptocurrencies that are quite different from Bitcoin, with different algorithms and objectives that go beyond just the scope of a digital currency.The ten most important cryptocurrencies after Bitcoin are:

Ethereum

Ripple

Bitcoin Cash

EOS

Litecoin

Dash

NEO

Monero

Stellar

Zcash

(The market caps and prices of cryptocurrency keep varying. The figures presented below are accurate to the time of writing this article).

Ethereum

Ethereum was launched in 2015 as a decentralized software platform. Rather than being limited to just a cryptocurrency, Ethereum has other features as well such as smart contracts and allowing Distributed Applications (DApps) to be built on the Ethereum platform.

Token: ETHPrice: $207.86Market Cap: 21.21 Billion USD

Ripple

Ripple is a cryptocurrency and a digital payment processing network which was launched in 2012. Ripple is the leading contender among all cryptocurrencies that could be adopted by banks and financial institutions worldwide because of its payments settlement system. This system could make the transfer of large amounts of funds almost instantaneous.

Token: XRPPrice: $0.3193Market Cap: 31.92 Billion USD

Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash was created in the year 2017 as a fork of Bitcoin. This fork took place because of disagreements between developers and miners as to the size of one block in the blockchain. With Bitcoin Cash, the block size was increased from 1 MB to 8 MB in Bitcoin Cash. This change lowered the transaction fees and increased transaction sizes.

Token: BCHPrice: $426.17Market Cap:7.36 Billion USD

EOS

EOS is a relatively new digital currency that was launched in the year 2017. It is a digital currency modeled after Ethereum in its functionality. It allows for the development of applications on its platform with different services and functions.

Litecoin

Litecoin was one of the earliest cryptocurrencies to be launched after Bitcoin in the year 2011. Litecoin is a lot like Bitcoin in the way it works. It also uses a proof-of-work as a validation mechanism. What makes Litecoin different from Bitcoin is its faster block generation rate and its lower price.

Token:LTCPrice: $53Market Cap:3.09 Billion USD

Dash

Initially called “Darkcoin”, Dash was launched in the year 2014. It was then rebranded to Dash in the year 2015. It boasts of features such as DarkSend and InstantX which ensure end-to-end privacy and security during coin transfers.

NEO

AntShares, the cryptocurrency, was launched in the year 2014 and was later renamed as Neo in 2017. It is the largest cryptocurrency that has come out of China. NEO distinguishes itself in supporting multiple different programming languages. It also lends support to smart contracts.

Token:NEOPrice: $17.15Market Cap:1.14 Billion USD

Monero

Monero is a cryptocurrency that was founded in the year 2014. The specialty of this cryptocurrency is its claim of being secure, private and untraceable. These properties are achieved by using features such as ring signatures, ring confidential algorithms, and stealth addresses.

Token: XMRPrice: $111.62Market Cap:1.83 Billion USD

Stellar

Stellar was created by the founder of Mt. Gox, the first ever Bitcoin exchange in the world. Stellar calls itself an open-source, decentralized protocol to allow transfer of digital currency across the world. It has partnered with other corporations to help them develop financial products. Its token is known as Lumen.

Token:XLRPrice: $0.20Market Cap:3.86 Billion USD

Zcash

Zcash is another cryptocurrency that was launched on the Bitcoin model claiming to be a more secure version of it. It gives users the option of “shielded transactions” with advanced cryptography used for encryption. This option is a great way to make private and public payments to users.

Token: ZECPrice: $114.1Market Cap: 551.82 Billion USD

Conclusion

Bitcoin is still the market leader among all the other cryptocurrencies when it comes to market cap, value, and the number of active users. However, other cryptocurrencies are gaining popularity with time. They have different features on offer that appeal to either, banks and other financial institutions or provide better value propositions to users.

Whatever the case may be, cryptocurrency is a revolution in itself and is here to stay.